The Latest News from Phil & Kaja Foglio

Monthly Archives: January 2015

Last night we were at Powell’s City of Books in Beaverton, OR, where we had one of the best author appearances we’ve ever done. The room was filled past capacity, the well-stocked shop sold out of everything that had our name on it (and could have used more), and we were there for almost an hour afterwards making sure that everybody got everything signed.

Several people also brought us gifts (which while appreciated, is not yet mandatory). One of which was the fellow who let us know that he had The Winslow tattooed upon his epidermis. No doubt good luck and joie de vivre will be his lot in life.

We also got to stop at Voodoo Donuts, which The Experiments appreciated, and I am sure that the impending sugar crash will make them easy to put to bed tonight.

Perhaps the most astonishing thing, in retrospect, was that we were wandering around Powell’s (http://www.powells.com/) and yet did not buy anything. I’m still kind of surprised about this myself. Not that there wasn’t Good Stuff in abundance, but lately, both Kaja and myself have decided that we have Too Much Stuff, and are determined to simplify our lives by clearing a bunch of it out. Thus, scooping up new books seems a bit self-defeating, especially when we can both point to large piles of unread books towering over our work spaces. We are looking forward to the challenge.

I’m very excited about this one. The first time I ever visited Powell’s, I was in college. A bunch of us had gone down to Portland for an SCA event, but of course, like good little nerds, we visited Powell’s City of Books. I was blown away. What an amazing place. One of my friends bought Phil’s Buck Godot graphic novels, and I read them on the way home. Ah, memories. Powell’s looms rather large in mine.

Phil and I will be signing at the Powell’s Beaverton location this Wednesday night, January 21, from 7-8 P.M. The occasion is the release of our third prose novel–Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle. The prose novels tell the same story as the graphic novels, but with less (no) pictures and more inner dialog and description. There’s also some extra stuff in there, novels give you a LOT more room for detail.

If you’re planning to come, and have anything at home that you would like signed, of course you can bring it in! (People always ask…) I hope to see lots of happy people there!

Tomorrow afternoon, Phil and I will be signing books and chatting with patrons at the Barnes & Noble in Bellevue. Careful, I’m told there are two. We’ll be at the one with this address: 626 106th Ave NE, Bellevue, WA 98004 (425) 451-8463. Please come see us! Also, look! I made a sign for it!

As normal readers of my posts know, it’s odd for me to lead off with something so blatantly commercial. Usually I begin with a comment about the price of fruitbats in Canada or how my dog is now covered in moss or somesuch and then subtly ease into the old hard sell. I am told that this is A Bad Thing and that I am constantly “burying the lead”, which is certainly true if these posts are nothing more than commercials for Studio Foglio written by an erratic copywriter. Back in art school, my Advertising teacher was constantly at a loss whenever I revealed my latest advertising campaign. (Typical example; A cheap high protean food supplement made from powdered insects! No doubt some of you are going “Ew!” Well, imagine what they said back in 1975. Personally, I think we’ll see this on the shelves within the next decade. Oh, and if there are any insectivore entrepreneurs reading this- call me; I have a great [admittedly retro] advertising campaign just sitting around!) But personally, I think of these posts as a chance to blather a bit to people who are, evidently, interested in what I have to say. Don’t get me wrong, part of what I have to say certainly involves “Buy our stuff” (which seems to be working, by the way, I had a note from the nice people at SkyHorse telling me that the first print run of Voice of the Castle is sold out and they are going back to print. Woot!), but these days, I think anybody with a grasp of social media has figured out that creative people would really like it if you bought enough stuff that they did not have to go back to the food service industry.

The photo is me in front of the Statue of Physical Energy(!) in Kensington Park, London, and it pretty much sums up how we’ve been for the last couple of weeks. It’s no secret that we’ve been ill, and yet forced to soldier on, what with all this holiday cheer people are slinging about. However we do seem to be coming out the other side, which is a good thing, as things refuse to stay still, damn them. Next week, for instance, we’ll be doing a signing at the Bellevue Barnes & Noble (626 106th Ave NE, Bellevue, WA 98004 425-451-8463) on January 17 at 2 PM, which is good news for everybody in western Washington, and even better news for everybody else, who no doubt already have a million things to do with their precious weekends.